Lewis County Sirens.com

By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – The sheriff’s office still doesn’t know who wrote the note that initiated an all-day lockdown and investigation at Centralia High School, but they know who left it on the teacher’s desk, and it turns out the folded up piece of paper was found outside on the ground by a student on his way to an adjacent classroom.

When he picked it up from under Jon Rooklidge’s door, he saw “Help us” written on the outside and thought it was someone needing help with their homework, so the student went into the classroom and placed it on Rooklidge’s desk, according to the detective investigating the case.

Centralia High School, on Oct. 2, 2015

Rooklidge teaches in one of two classrooms that share a portable building, which has a ramp that leads up to the two side-by-side doors.

The Oct. 2 incident began with the discovery after second period of the message that stated a student was planning on killing people during the school assembly later that day. Rooklidge took it to the principal and the school resource officer was informed.

Law enforcement swarmed to the campus on Eshom Road and distraught parents waited at a church across the street. Some students were interviewed, and the student body of some 1,000 youngsters were searched with a metal-detector wand before being released in small groups over the course of the next several hours. No weapons were found.

It happened the day after a mass shooting at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Oregon. The high school’s homecoming football game and dance that weekend were cancelled.

Lewis County Sheriff’s Office detective Tom Callas in the following weeks spoke with teachers and students, viewed security footage and handwriting on homework and concluded the boy who put the note on the desk did so innocently.

In a recorded interview at the sheriff’s office, the 16-year-old said he didn’t read the inside of the note and didn’t know what it said.

The specific contents of the note are not included in Callas’s written report, and in an interview, he declined to reveal what it said.

He left copies of it with some school staff, asking them to keep an eye out for any handwriting, from a student or adult, that matches it, he said.

It was handwritten on school notebook paper, torn at the top. It had been folded up, Callas said.

The message on the inside was described that morning by a school district spokesperson as a “specific type of threat of violence at the high school.”

In a news release crafted at mid-morning that day by public information officers at the Centralia Police Department, the sheriff’s office and Public Relations Coordinator Ed Petersen for the Centralia School District, it was described as a note that stated a student was planning on killing people during a school assembly, scheduled for the afternoon.

Callas wrote in his report the note warned of a potential shooting incident to happen later that day at an assembly.

The page was taken into evidence, and partial prints have been lifted from it, for further examination by a fingerprint classification detective.

Centralia High School sits outside the city limits and is in the sheriff’s office jurisdiction, but the district has a school resource officer from the Centralia Police Department.

A somewhat similar incident occurred about five weeks later, with the discovery of writing on a student’s desk that said, “Ima shoot up the school 11/10.” The response involved officers from several agencies searching all students prior to their entry into the school the following morning.

Centralia police investigated and a 16-year-old student who said she was just doodling and forgot to erase it, was arrested for felony harassment.

Detective Callas suspended his investigation last month, unable to find a suspect for the Oct. 2 incident.

Whether someone had a genuine intention to harm others, or someone was just looking for attention, Callas said he couldn’t say or speculate what was going through their mind.

“I just know we took this very seriously, that somebody was threatening to shoot,” he said.
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For background, read “Writer of threat to “kill people” at Centralia High School still unknown” from Friday October 2, 2015, here

John H. Kuhn II appears before a judge in Lewis County Superior Court.

By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – A former manager of a Chehalis business has been accused by the owner of stealing more than $10,000 worth of kitchen cabinets and countertops.

The current manager of Builders Surplus Northwest contacted the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office in May to report the discovery of what he said occurred back around January 2013.

John H. Kuhn II, was summonsed into Lewis County Superior Court, where this afternoon he learned more about the charge of first-degree theft that has been filed against him.

Kuhn, 35, said the kitchen remodel was a gift or bonus from the owner, for working so hard for him after a previous manager left.

“Two and a half years later, and now this,” Kuhn said outside the courtroom.

According to charging documents, current manager Dana Shave with assistance from company accountant Jon Christensen, gathered up invoices for the materials and labor to install the products at Kuhn’s home on Padrick Road in Centralia.

Photos of the kitchen were posted on the company’s website as a representation of the work they do, according to the documents.

Owner of the Hamilton Road business Michel Rey told an investigating deputy he knew of the remodel but was unaware his manager didn’t pay for it with his own money, the documents state.

Rey said he never provided bonuses for his employees in the form of materials or labor, as if he did, he would make them pay the tax on the materials, the documents relate.

Lewis County Deputy Prosecutor Ann Harrie wrote in the charging documents that Kuhn denied the theft allegations to the deputy and provided names of five people who could verify they were a work bonus, but each of those five provided statements that they’d never heard of the kitchen or cabinets being a gift or bonus from Rey.

Kuhn does not have any email or correspondence from Rey showing it was a gift, Harrie wrote.

The charge of first-degree theft was filed on Dec. 3. It has a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison.

When Kuhn appeared before Judge Richard Brosey this afternoon, temporary defense attorney Joely O’Rourke said Kuhn was in the process of retaining Centralia attorney Don Blair to represent him.

Lewis County Deputy Prosecutor Kevin Nelson asked for bail to be set as a $10,000 unsecured bond. Brosey agreed.

Kuhn’s arraignment is scheduled for January 7.

Danny A. Wing talks with his defense attorney Todd Pascoe before going in front of the judge in Lewis County Superior Court.

By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – Danny A. Wing was brought back from prison to Lewis County Superior Court, so he could sign a portion of his sentencing documents that were compiled after his Sept. 25 sentencing for the death of 3-year-old Jasper Henderling-Warner.

Wing, 27, is serving a 416 month sentence following his guilty plea to first-degree manslaughter and third-degree assault.

Jasper died in October 2014 from chronic battered child syndrome, after Wing and his wife had taken the toddler into their household. The family had recently moved to Vader.

The documents, called finding of facts and conclusions of law, related to the enhancements that allowed the court to give him more time than the standard sentencing range; that the victim was a member of his household, and that Wing abused a position of trust on a particularly vulnerable victim.

Wing didn’t sign them during the approximately five-minute hearing in front of Judge Nelson Hunt this afternoon. His attorney Todd Pascoe signed them for him.

Lewis County Senior Deputy Prosecutor Will Halstead told the judge Wing had filed several motions, on his own behalf, from prison – Halstead said out of the courtroom they related to his exceptional sentence.

But Wing, who spent several minutes with Pascoe before going before the judge, asked to withdraw the filings. He said he might want to refile them at a later date, with assistance from an appeal attorney.

Judge Hunt allowed them to be withdrawn. Wing noted that he is indigent and would have an appointed appeal attorney representing him.

Wing then had a hearing in family court, in the matter of the couple’s three children.

His wife Brenda A. Wing remains in the Lewis County Jail, awaiting her sentencing for her role in Jasper’s death.

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For background, read “Vader man gets 34 years for toddler death” from Friday September 25, 2015, here

By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – Lewis County Superior Court Judge Nelson Hunt publicly acknowledged he plans to retire, saying he was making the official announcement early so anyone who may wish to run for his seat next November can make their plans.

“I will be 67 next year and it is just time to retire,” Hunt said in a news release yesterday. “I very much enjoy the work I am doing and those with whom I work but I want to retire before too many people start wishing that I would.”

Judge Nelson Hunt

He said his post-retirement plans are still in the making, but notes the possibility of traveling extensively and also said he’s been approached about teaching college-level criminal law and procedural courses.

Adna resident Andrew Toynbee, a former chief criminal deputy prosecutor in Lewis County, announced today he will seek election to Hunt’s position.

Hunt was first elected as judge in 2004, replacing the retiring Judge David Draper. He was unopposed in that election as well as in 2008 and 2012.

In his news release, he says the experience he is most proud of is “our continuing success” with drug court, something he was more than a little skeptical about when called upon to lead it following Judge John Hall’s retirement.

Hunt said in the past he’d seen many well-intentioned programs aimed at dealing with the drug problem fail over the long run.

” … I was soon convinced that it is the most effective way to proceed and our results corroborate that,” Hunt stated. “It will be difficult to end my active association with drug court but I am sure my successor will be up to the challenge.”

Hunt’s law career began as a deputy prosecuting attorney for Lewis County in 1979 and then he became the Lewis County prosecutor in 1990.

He held that elected position until 1995 when he resigned to take a position with the local law firm of Mano and McKerricher, where his practice emphasized criminal defense.

“Being a judge is a great job,” Hunt said. “It is challenging and full of variety, every day brings something new.

“That was the main reason I decided to become a judge and the past 11 years have certainly lived up to that.”

Toynbee today said the support and encouragement he has gotten to run for judge has been overwhelming.

“I am looking forward to getting out and letting the community know who I am and what I have to offer the people of Lewis County as a superior court judge,” Toynbee stated.

Lewis County has three superior court judges who preside over felony and high-money civil cases. The job pays $162,618 a year.

Toynbee served for 13 years in the Lewis County Prosecutor’s Office, in a variety of positions. He spent his last five years there the chief criminal deputy, before taking a similar position in 2006 at the Thurston County Prosecutor’s Office.

He said he oversees he oversees a staff of over 30 attorneys and support personnel.

“I have learned much in the last nine years, and I am eager to bring that experience home to Lewis County,” Toynbee said.

The married father of three has continued to reside in Lewis County and lists his community involvement as a board member for Pope’s Kids Place since 2006, several terms on the St. Joseph School Commission, a former board member of Valley View Community Health Center and has coached for Chehalis Youth Soccer.

Toynbee will formally kick off his campaign in January.